Usual starting catcher joins BRD Player of Year Brumfield as force on mound for Lions

JAMES CITY — — At six years old, Warhill High is still a relatively new school, so baseball coach Joe Henzel refers to program achievements as knocking down doors. The Lions dropped a couple of big ones a year ago, when they shared the Bay Rivers District title and played in their first Region I tournament game.

Warhill repeated as district co-champions again this year, and will break new ground Monday when it hosts a regional game for the first time. Before that, the Lions (16-4) would like to achieve another first by winning a district tournament title.

They get their third chance in four seasons at 7 p.m. Thursday when they face district co-champ New Kent (17-4) at York High. Warhill fell just short of winning the tournament in 2010, losing 2-1 to eventual Group AA state champ Poquoson.

On their next trip to the final, in 2011, the Lions were beaten handily by Tabb because they ran out of pitching arms. That should not be a problem Thursday because Blake Wills (5-1) takes the hill.

Wills has combined with district Player of the Year Michael Brumfield (9-1) to give the Lions a 1-2 starting punch poised to carry them deep into the postseason. Brumfield has been the district's best arm this season from the start, while Wills has emerged of late as a surprise pitching star.

The Lions' starting catcher, Wills did not even get his first pitching start at Warhill until April 26, and only then because of a nagging back injury to former No. 2 starter Blake Otey. Wills has won all four of his starts, allowing only one run.

"We knew we were getting a quality arm, a guy who could pitch and not just throw, when he transferred from Bruton after his sophomore year," Henzel said of Wills, a 5-foot-10 senior who will play at Eastern Mennonite next year. "But last year, we decided we'd rather be strong behind the plate and hope our other arms could get the job done.

"We couldn't do that this year. We needed someone who could give us a steady starting performance from the No. 2 spot, and we've gotten that from Blake Wills."

Wills has only 33 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings pitched. But he gets a ton of ground balls, and with one of the region's most solid defenses behind him, that works fine.

"I think we had 11 ground-ball outs in the first round of the district tournament," Henzel said of Wills' four-hitter in the 1-0 win over Jamestown. "The Apprentice School was here watching (shortstop) Thomas Richardson, and he made so many good plays on the sloppy field that Blake might have helped get him recruited."

Wills admits he doesn't throw hard enough to strike out a lot of hitters in the baseball-tough Bay Rivers. He adds there really aren't many hard throwers in the district this year anyway, but there are a lot of very good pitchers and he mimics their style.

"Look at the guys like Brumfield, or Matt Metheny (New Kent), or Evan Sperling (Grafton) or Matt Smith (Jamestown)," Wills said. "They throw decently hard but are not overpowering.

"They're successful because they paint the corners and have good off-speed stuff."

Henzel credits sophomore Lucas Rice for moving to catcher when Wills pitches, and playing the position mostly mistake-free, for being able to take advantage of Wills' gifts on the mound.

"Being a human backstop is probably not his favorite thing to do," Henzel said of Rice, who plays third base when Brumfield pitches. "But he's a competitor and wants to do whatever it takes for us to be successful."

The same is true of Brumfield, who threw a three-hitter in the 7-0 semifinal win over York, as he and Wills have allowed only seven hits in 14 shutout innings in the tournament. Brumfield even hit a rare home run in the York game.

This year, Brumfield has pitched complete games in every start except the one in which he was scheduled to pitch only three innings. In addition to striking out 90 batters in 73 innings, he leads the team with a .368 batting average and 25 RBI.

"We didn't say Brummy had to be our Teddy West of this year," Henzel said, comparing him to the 2012 Bay Rivers Pitcher of the Year, who's now playing for Hampden-Sydney. "But we said for us to have success, he'd have to help be a leader.

"When we said that, we didn't envision he'd carry us offensively and as a pitcher."

Wills will be asked to carry the Lions on the mound in the tournament championship game. Brumfield is confident he will.

"New Kent is a good hitting team, no doubt about it," said Brumfield, who went 1-1 against the Trojans. "But I think Blake will get the job done.